For Team USA, the Paralympic Games ran parallel to the Olympic Games.
In the first few days, success seemed surprisingly rare. Swimmers won a few silver medals, but not many golds, and it seemed that the team might have gone from “experienced” to “outdated.”
Then came the gold rush.
The U.S. Paralympic athletes ultimately won a medal count comparable to that of their Olympic counterparts: 38 medals and 10 gold medals, compared to 34 medals and 14 gold medals for the Olympians.
The Paralympics even provided a reverse iteration of a viral celebration by the Davis-Woodhall family. During the Olympics, Hunter Woodhall was on hand to congratulate Tara Davis-Woodhall on her long jump gold medal. At the Paralympics, Tara was the one in the stands hugging her husband after his convincing victory in the 400m T63.
In total, the US Paralympic team achieved 36 gold medals for the Olympic team of 40. The Paralympians also brought home 105 medals in total, slightly behind the Olympic team’s 126, but still comfortably in the triple digits. But there is a big difference when comparing Paralympic and Olympic medal counts. The Olympics reached a maximum of 329 medal events. The Paralympics had 549.
So while Team USA finished top of the Olympic medal table by all reasonable criteria – gold medals, total medals or a points system – the Paralympic team was nowhere near the top. Team GB finished well ahead of Team USA, with 49 gold medals and a total of 124. And neither team came close to China’s staggering total of 94 gold, 76 silver and 50 bronze – total 220.
That raises a complicated question: How should the U.S. Olympic and Paralympic Committee define success? Is it strictly in terms of medals?
It is tempting to use the number of medals at the Paralympic Games as a measure of the rights of a country with a disability or to justify government intervention. A unique feature of American sports is the lack of a government agency to oversee the sport, but a commission reported to Congress this year that it may be time for government to step in: “It is time for Congress to accept that while we will never have a ‘department of sports’ model in this country, the federal government has a greater role to play in ensuring safety, equity, accessibility and accountability in sports than it has heretofore recognized and accepted.”
But the reasons to be skeptical of such a proposal are not just American exceptionalism or the fear that the next president will be someone who has promised to tip the scales of authoritarianism versus accountability firmly in the direction of the former. Consider the contrasting fortunes of Team GB, which excelled at this year’s Paralympics as it usually does, and the British government, which earlier this year met the anger of the UN Committee on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities, which concluded that the country had made little to no progress on the rights of persons with disabilities since the country was first confronted with the issue eight years ago.
So perhaps the question of the role of government in sport, especially disability sport, is not simply a function of how many medals the country’s Paralympians win. And compared to the 1980s, when the modern Paralympics were born, today’s Games feature far more athletes in far fewer events.
Still, it’s hard not to notice that the U.S. numbers have dropped. In 1988, the U.S. sent 371 athletes. This year, they sent 225, including athletes who don’t have disabilities but who compete as guides for visually impaired Paralympians. The Paralympics have raised the bar for qualification, but is it alarming that fewer American athletes are making it?
And is Team USA developing the next generation adequately? Only 78 of the team’s 225 Paralympians were rookies, and few of them won medals. Some of the most successful Paralympians in history, including swimmer Jessica Long and wheelchair racer Tatyana McFadden, had a mix of medal-winning performances and disappointments.
In some cases, the Paralympics don’t quite match America’s strengths. Earlier this year, Josh McKinney became the first Paralympic soccer player to be inducted into the National Soccer Hall of Fame, joining Tim Howard, whose World Cup exploits were viral sensations in their day. But McKinney’s sport, seven-a-side soccer for players with cerebral palsy and related conditions, is no longer part of the Paralympics. The Games include blind football, for which the U.S. did not qualify.
The good news for the US was that there was no shortage of inspiring performances:
— Noelle Malkamaki, competing at DePaul University, set a world record in the T46 shot put (arm injury).
— Miles Krajewski showed his tireless play on the court by defeating the reigning champion Krishna Nagar in the men’s badminton singles. He teamed up with Jayci Simon to win silver in the mixed doubles.
— Sarah Adam became the first woman to play for the U.S. wheelchair rugby team and she emerged as one of the team’s top attacking players.
— Derek Loccident, a former college football player who lost part of his left leg after his foot was blown off by a train, debuted in five different events, including the 100 meters and the javelin. He won silver in the long jump and high jump.
— Jaydin Blackwell made a great Paralympic debut in the T38 class (coordination issues), setting a world record in the 100 meters and equaling his own world record in the 400 meters.
— Matt Stutzman, the prototypical armless archer, made a thrilling run to his first gold medal. Along the way, he won the first confrontation of armless archers at the Paralympic Games, showing the impact the 41-year-old archer has had on the sport.
— U.S. triathletes won eight medals. The U.S. women’s sitting volleyball team and the men’s wheelchair basketball team won their third consecutive gold medals.
— Even after a slow start in her first events, Jessica Long won her 17th and 18th gold medals of her Paralympic swimming career. Cyclist/skier Oksana Masters also claimed two gold medals, bringing her career total to nine golds and 19 total.
And these performances are attracting a wider audience than ever before in the U.S. NBC made much of the Games available on Peacock, allowing viewers to hop between wheelchair tennis matches or perhaps try to figure out how to play boccia (which had no U.S. competitors), and ratings for NBC’s major broadcasts significantly higher than in 2021, partly because Paris is in a more favorable time zone than Tokyo.
The next part of the equation is providing access for all aspiring Paralympians hoping to become the next Long or Loccident. Olympians from the US (and many other countries) benefit from the American college sports system, which offers a four-year combination of education and training, and the USOPC is trying to future Paralympians send also to college. A handful of colleges offer intercollegiate wheelchair basketball and wheelchair tennis teams. Many track and field athletes and swimmers also compete on their colleges’ able-bodied teams.
Athletes in these programs will soon get their biggest chance of all: the Paralympics will be held on home soil in Los Angeles in four years. It’s safe to say the U.S. will have more than 225 athletes. What happens between now and then could determine whether the 2028 Games will be a springboard for future success, whether that means catching up to China in the medal count or expanding eligibility for athletes with disabilities nationwide. Or both.